The Force of Evolution

Most people, when they think ‘evolution‘ also think ‘survival of the fittest‘ – this conjurers up images of a dog-eat-dog battle for survival. However how does this battle manifest? There has been a debate going on in biology as to how to frame evolutionary activity; was it considered that evolution was a response predominately to the environment and so changes were driven by the need to adapt to the local habitat – by inference this suggests that once a species has adapted well enough to flourish, then the same level of pressure to adapt is no longer there.

However a counter theory – known a the Red Queen Hypothesis – postulated that evolution is far more of a ‘co‘ process – coevolution – a process less about the environment and more about your fellow individuals. This hypothesis recently go a boost from some experimental research:

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have provided the first experimental evidence that shows that evolution is driven most powerfully by interactions between species, rather than adaptation to the environment. The team observed viruses as they evolved over hundreds of generations to infect bacteria. They found that when the bacteria could evolve defences, the viruses evolved at a quicker rate and generated greater diversity, compared to situations where the bacteria were unable to adapt to the viral infection.

This is very interesting – partly because it shows us that coevolution is a much more powerful for than previously thought – so less ‘survival of the fittest individual’, but more ‘survival of the fittest community‘ –  with fitness being partially defined by the linkages between actors in those ecosystems.

This also has wider implications: My recent research into evolution and technology concluded that the development of technology is subject to a process not dissimilar to evolution – and as such the insights into biology can be the insights into technology.

1 Comment The Force of Evolution

  1. AvatarStefano Serafini

    Dear Tomas,

    since laws of form are back, a concept of self-evolution can be linked with the idea of coevolution, and offer a new, reach frame to your vision. A very harsh debate followed the publication of Jerry Fodor – Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, Where Darwin got Wrong, Profile 2010. But the classic text is Antonio Lima-de-Faria, Evolution without Selection. Form and Function by Autoevolution, Elsevier, 1989. Important contributions come also from Adrian Bejan (Duke Univ.) and his construcatl theory (http://www.constructal.org/).

    Ciao

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.